Is it ethical to alter cards and sell them without disclosure?

[CardPadre]

Originally Posted by Snowman

This is not when people mean when they talk about someone "pressing" a card. There are people here who think that there's an army of card doctors that run around soaking cards and then squishing the hell out of them with a mechanical press in an effort to expand their size so that they can then trim them down.

Personally, I think this is pretty funny. Believe it or not, this is actually a myth. It's not a thing.

Another thing people refer to as pressing is smashing out creases with a spoon. This actually is a thing and it damages cards. This IS an alteration, and it's something I won't do. It is perhaps worth mentioning that this is also something Kurt does not do either. This will get your cards flagged as altered stock by PSA and SGC. Don't do it.

Putting a book on top of a card while it dries to ensure it dries flat is not what is meant by "pressing" a card.

It's the pressing flat of corners or wrinkles that I think most here think of when "pressing" is mentioned. I don't think your definition is the only one. Most don't really consider smashing a card to increase the size and then trim some excess as being any kind of rampant problem...I've never seen anyone here particularly worried about that.

But a soaked card now has bends if you don't intervene and you are pressing those bends out to make it seem "normal" again.

Spoon smashing for a crease/wrinkle probably compresses the card stock and Kurt does not do that, I don't believe. But essentially (and a simplified way of thinking of it) he "soaks" the area that is creased or wrinkled and massages it flat for drying.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by CardPadre

But a soaked card now has bends if you don't intervene and you are pressing those bends out to make it seem "normal" again.

Soaking a card does not "cause bends". All paper stock is dried flat. That's how paper is made. If you soak a card and just let it sit there to dry out in the open air, one side will evaporate more quickly than the other and that will cause the paper stock to bend. Drying it slowly and holding it flat while it dries ensures that it remains flat. A soaked card is a perfectly flat card. No "pressing" is necessary. You can dry a card flat with something that only weighs a few ounces.

[CardPadre]

Originally Posted by Snowman

Soaking a card does not "cause bends". All paper stock is dried flat. That's how paper is made. If you soak a card and just let it sit there to dry out in the open air, one side will evaporate more quickly than the other and that will cause the paper stock to bend. Drying it slowly and holding it flat while it dries ensures that it remains flat. A soaked card is a perfectly flat card. No "pressing" is necessary. You can dry a card flat with something that only weighs a few ounces.

And one side will absorb water more quickly than the other when you soak...creating a bending. More subtle than the drying bend, but doesn't just work one way.